Always on the winning team-serving Jesus Christ in Barnsley, England.

Reflections, ideas, updates on life as a Barnsley Pastor with Gateway (a new church) - whose vision is to reach every person in Barnsley with the Good News of Jesus, in partnership with other local churches.
www.gatewaybarnsley.org

Wednesday, 27 March 2013

Preached at Gateway on 24th March 2013We believe that Jesus died...but what does this mean?

Mark
15.33-47.

Introduction

Last
week was quite an historic week.On
Tuesday we had Pope Francis I presiding over his inaugural Mass in Rome.Then on Thursday it was Justin Welby’s turn,
as he was enthroned as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury.The Pope is leader of 1.2 billion Roman
Catholics across the world, and the Archbishop is leader of 80 million members
of the Anglican Communion.

What
these men say and how they represent the Christian faith to their global
audiences will either promote the gospel or be an obstacle.We need to pray for them.

Then
sandwiched between the official commencement of these two global ministries was
– on the Wednesday – the UK budget delivered by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer.Ironically this was on the
same day as the UN launching ‘International Happiness Day’.In these days of austerity, there is only one
thing that will truly deliver happiness, and that’s the gospel – the good news
of Jesus.

There
is a verse in 1 Thessalonians (which is a letter that the apostle Paul wrote to
a church in Thessalonica just a few months after he founded it) that says, ‘We
believe that Jesus died and rose again’ (4.14).This week we’re looking at the first part of that verse as we lead up to
Good Friday when we especially remember the death of Jesus.Then next Sunday, Easter Sunday, we shall
look at the second part, as we celebrate that momentous day in history when
Jesus rose again.

So
part 1, ‘We believe that Jesus died’.But what does this mean?In the
first place we are talking about a crucifixion.The title to this preaching series is, ‘The world’s greatest hero,
Christ Crucified’.In the passage from
Mark’s gospel we picked up the account half-way through the 6 hour ordeal that
Jesus endured whilst hanging on the cross.

1)‘Jesus died’

Here’s
what one Roman statesman, Cicero, famously said of Roman crucifixion a few
years before Jesus’ death, ‘It is a crime to put a Roman citizen in chains, it
is an enormity to flog one, sheer murder to slay one; what, then shall I say of
crucifixion?It is impossible to find
the word for such an abomination...let the very mention of the cross be far
removed not only from a Roman citizen’s body, but from his mind, his eyes, his
ears’. In other words, Cicero is saying that
crucifixion is so shocking, don’t even think about it.

It
is a verifiable, historical fact that Jesus was crucified.Not only do we have the historical attested
accounts of the gospels like Mark 15, but also outside references.For example Josephus, a famous historian in the
1st century, wrote this,

‘Now
there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man...for he was a doer of wonderful
works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure.He drew over to him both many of the Jews and
many of the Gentiles.He was the Christ;
and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned
him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he
appeared unto them alive again the third day...and the tribe of Christians, so
named from him, are not extinct at this day” (p379 Josephus, Complete
Works).

The
gospels inform us that Jesus was betrayed by a close friend, Judas, with the
ramifications of being sentenced to crucifixion.Jesus’ trial took place by a kangaroo court
illegally thrown together in the middle of the night, and then, once sentenced
was passed, he was flogged with a whip woven with pieces of bone and metal, and
so his flesh was torn open.Jesus was
hit, mocked and spat upon.He then was
humiliated through the streets of Jerusalem in the early hours of the following
morning, jeered on by – who knows – even people he had healed, carrying his own
cross.Then outside the city wall, he
was laid upon a crossbeam, with his clothing stripped from him, and endured
Roman spikes hammered into his hands or wrists, exploding his nerve ends with
agonising pain and hoisted up onto his cross.

So
horrid was crucifixion, that it was forbidden to crucify a Roman citizen, no
matter how terrible his crime.Indeed, a
few generations later, another Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, outlawed
crucifixion as unsuitable for a civilised society.

So
at the one level, as we think about those words, ‘We believe that Jesus died’,
yes we believe he endured one of the most torturous ways to die.It shines light on the truth that God
identifies with suffering.But on
another deeper level, we believe this...let’s allow Isaiah the prophet to speak
and this was 800 years before the actual death of Jesus.So not only do we have the contemporary and
historical accounts of Jesus confirmed, but also predicted 800 years
beforehand.In Isaiah 53 we have that
remarkable prophecy that describes in detail Jesus’ death, which includes that
God ‘laid on him the iniquity of us all’ (Isaiah 53.6).

2)Jesus died for your sins

In
other words, as the apostle Paul writes elsewhere, ‘Christ died for our sins’
(1 Corinthians 15.3).So there is a
deeper meaning and significance to why Jesus died.As we look back on this preaching series, at
the core of everything is the substitutionary death of Jesus.That he died in your place, he substituted
himself instead of you.There is no
better story line that is so compelling or electrifying than one person giving
his life to save another.Nothing is
more attractive than that.

Consider
one of the most popular fictional story themes of all time, the Harry Potter
series.Whilst Christians have varying
opinions, one thing is for sure, JK Rowling could not end her series any other
way than one person giving his life for his friends.There is no other ultimate drama, there is
nothing more moving.There is no higher
theme to end on, then one person to give his life for another.We have looked at the death of Jesus from
different angles or perspectives during the previous 5 weeks, but at the heart
of each focus is the truth that Jesus died for you.

The
image of the battlefield.Jesus
conquered so you can have the victory over evil (Colossians 2.15).

The
image of the hospital.Jesus is wounded
so you can be healed (Isaiah 53.5).

The
image of the court of law.Jesus is
sentenced in your place (Romans 3.24).

The
image of the prison.Jesus sets you free
from the shackles (Hebrews 2.15).

The
image of reconciliation.Jesus offers
you the hand of friendship (Ephesians 2.16).

There
is no greater appeal to you, or any other person – whatever culture they are
from or language they speak – the wonderful attraction of Jesus Christ (the
gospel – the good news) is that he died for yours sins, instead of you.

That’s
why the death of Jesus is the most famous death in history.According
to Rowling, a major theme in the Harry Potter series is death: "My books are largely about death. They open
with the death of Harry's parents. There is Voldemort's obsession with
conquering death and his quest forimmortalityat any price...I so understand why
Voldemort wants to conquer death. We're all frightened of it."

But
Jesus’ death gives you hope and an eternal future.You need not be frightened. As we’ve seen from just 5 images, and there
are more, the Bible is not monochrome. There are many colourful, vivid ways to
explain this one message of the death of Jesus and his resurrection.Here’s one more...

3)Jesus’ death shields you from an eternal
death.

Here’s
another image, and it’s derived from just one word.The apostle Paul wrote, ‘Christ died for our
sins’ (1 Corinthians 15.3).The word
‘for’ may seem insignificant, but it’s a very important word.A world-class scholar (Murray J. Harris) of
the New Testament suggests that the word ‘for’ which is ‘hyper’ in Greek seems to have come from the image of one person
standing protectively over another person.It’s the image of one person shielding another.

So
‘Christ died for – hyper – our sins
presents the picture of Christ, whilst he is hanging on the cross, protecting you
from something.But what?God sent Jesus to die on a cross to shield you
from God’s own wrath towards your sin.You see God is righteously angry at your sin, that fact that you’ve
turned your backs on him, and rightly so.The consequence is to be banished from his presence for ever.That is what happens at death to every
unbeliever.If you choose to reject God
and his good news, then after you die in the life to come, God will reject
you.God is only honouring your
choice.But there is the hope. The fact that Christ died for your sins, means
that he shields you from God’s righteous anger, because Jesus takes it
himself.Jesus experiences the
abandonment of God his heavenly Father upon the cross, Jesus experiences being
shut out of God’s presence (hell) instead of you. Jesus
diverts God’s righteous anger away from you and upon himself.He shields you, he guards you.

Indeed,
as we consider Jesus, the Son of God, it is therefore God himself, who gave
himself, to save us from himself.But to
stand under the protection of Jesus, you must stand under the protection of the
cross – Christ crucified.In other
words, you have to embrace this message, indeed embrace Jesus himself and live
for him as a sign that you believe in him and are committed to him.

Remember
at the core of everything re. the death of Jesus is his substitutionary
sacrifice.Jesus substitutes himself for
you.He is sacrificed in your place.

Here
are 3 examples of people who came to understand why Jesus died, and subsequently
changed the course of history:

Martin Luther,
‘Though I lived as a monk, I felt I was a sinner before God with an extremely
disturbed conscience’.Luther struggled
and wrestled with God, trying to make himself good enough for God.He hated the verse in the Bible, ‘the
righteousness of God’ (Romans 3.21), because he knew he could never match it.Then, as if light broke into the darkness,
after meditating day and night upon the Bible, Luther realised that it was
through faith, that he could be clothed or covered with ‘the righteousness of
God’ – it was a gift from God.So
Luther’s spiritual struggle was over, as he came to love that verse, ‘the
righteousness of God’, which was for him, as he wrote nearly 30 years later in
1545, ‘truly the gate to paradise’.Martin Luther changed the course of history, triggered by nailing his 95
Theses to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenburg on 31st
October 1517 protesting against the Catholic Church of the day, starting the
Protestant movement.

John Wesley,
already a well known Church of England vicar, attended a Christian gathering
one evening in London, very relunctantly.He too had been struggling intensely with his own failings and
faults.He wrote this in his journal of
his experience that evening on 24th May 1738 as he listened to a
speaker, “About a quarter before nine...I felt my heart strangely warmed.I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone,
for my salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from
the law of sin and death”.John Wesley
changed the course of history.He
founded the Methodist movement, which, as historians state, saved Britain from
a civil revolution that was imminent, unless there was change in society.Indeed, historians like the atheist Roy Hattersley
former MP and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, argues that Methodists with
their strong work ethic became the backbone to the great Industrial Revolution
that changed the world.

James Hudson Taylor in
June 1849, was lazily browsing his father’s books on summer’s day and a
defining moment occurred.He came across
some pamphlets.He picked one up and
wandered across to the old warehouse at the back of the family home where he
often read in quiet.In this pamphlet,
he was struck by one phrase, ‘The finished work of Christ’.This was reference to the death of Jesus
Christ on the cross, who exclaimed moments before he died, ‘It is finished’!
(Gospel of John 19.30).Hudson asked
himself, ‘What was finished?’

Hudson
said, years later, “I at once replied, ‘A full and perfect atonement and
satisfaction for sin. The debt was paid for our sins...If the whole work was
finished and the whole debt paid, what is there left for me to do?’

So
there in the surroundings of the family home in Barnsley, Hudson, all alone,
knelt on his knees and accepted Jesus as his Saviour. He had answered his own
question, and described it years later as ‘light flashed into my own soul by
the Holy Spirit’.So at the age of 17
years, James Hudson Taylor experienced the joy of real Christianity.Without this most significant God-moment, the
China Inland Mission would never have been born. Indeed the multitudes of 19th
century China would never have been reached with the same Good News message of
Jesus Christ, ‘It is finished’. It was
the clear understanding of the atonement of Christ that changed the whole
course of Hudson’s life and to some degree changed the course of history in
China.

In
all 3 examples, it was the understanding of what God had done for them, not what
they could do for God.

Conclusion

We
believe that Jesus died for our sins.That’s what we believe as a local church, part of the universal church
across the world and down through the ages.But do you believe that?Here’s
the test.If you were to die tonight, do
you know for sure that you would go to heaven?Do you have that assurance that you will spend eternity in heaven with
the Lord Jesus and all his people – a place where there is no more death,
mourning, crying or pain?Do you know
for sure?If you are thinking, “I hope
so, but I’m not sure”...it means you have not quite yet understood the message
of the cross, the core part of the Christian faith.

There
is only one way into heaven, the eternal life to come, and that’s by faith in
Jesus.You are barred, but Jesus can get
you in...if you are in him.If you allow him to conquer the evil in your
life, if you allow him to heal you, if you allow him to take the sentence, if
you allow him to set you free, if you take his hand of friendship being offered
to you.

We
believe Jesus died and rose again – so come back next Sunday for part 2.‘We believe Jesus rose again’.The cross changes things in a big way!That’s why Jesus is the world greatest hero –
not Christ superstar - but Christ crucified.

Thursday, 21 March 2013

‘and in this one body to reconcile both
of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their
hostility’ v16

Introduction

So
far we’ve covered the images of the battlefield, and the hospital, the
lawcourts and the prison.Today, the
image is this...let’s paint a picture to give you a clue...you are now in your
own home with family and friends.Imagine, as does happen, a quarrel breaks out between you and family
member or a friend.It might be more
serious than a little argument, it might be real hostility.To be reconciled is to have that friendship
restored, renewed.So we’re thinking
about the image of friendship or reconciliation.

To
go further, it might be that you feel alienated.It might be alienation at work, or at school,
or even at home, or just generally in society – as if you’ve been isolated,
with no-one to relate to.

This
theme of reconciliation is perhaps one of the most popular today re. the
different images of the cross.In our
contemporary world where people are searching for authentic relationships and having
to work out and work through the breakdown relationships, the theme of
friendship or reconciliation is very relevant.It’s also very personal.

The apostle Paul speaks about a ‘dividing wall of
hostility’ in his letter to the Ephesians, v14.There are many barriers that separate people, that divide people.The Berlin Wall is a very tangible example
until it was destroyed in 1989, separating east from west.Last Saturday there was a strong line of
stewards and police separating football supporters...It was a dividing wall of hostility.But there are many more examples that divide
people, it may be racial or religious divisions.It may be jealousy, pride, or
bitterness.Just consider the Huhne
family re. the speeding points saga...

Former cabinet minister Chris
Huhne and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce have each been jailed for eight months for perverting
the course of justice.

Huhne had admitted
asking Pryce to take his speeding points to avoid losing his licence in 2003,
and Pryce was convicted of having agreed to do so.

Pryce, 60, went to a
newspaper with the story after their marriage broke up.

The judge said
Huhne, 58, had fallen from a "great height" but any tragedy was their
"own fault".

Huhne, who resigned
as an MP after pleading guilty, told Channel 4 News ahead of sentencing that
his actions in 2003 had spun into a "massive, devastating set of
consequences for family, for career and for everything".

It
might be a Conifer Trees that are a cause of hostility between neighbours...!

‘The dividing wall of hostility’...

What
dividing wall is the apostle Paul referring to?

A
bit of background...if you look back over the Old Testament you’ll find how God
chose Israel out of all the people of the earth to be his holy people.It started with a guy called Abraham and how
through his descendents the nation Israel would be formed to be a blessing to
the families of the earth, to be a light to the nations.But what happened over the centuries, and by
this time we come to the 1st century, the time of Jesus and the
apostles, and the writing of the NT - the people of Israel, the Jews hated the
Gentiles (those who were not Jews).They
forgot or neglected their calling from God re. their purpose to be a light to
the nations, they twisted the privileges they had, as God’s people, into
favouritism.They regarded the Gentiles
as ‘dogs’, which as you can imagine is a term of contempt!When the apostle Paul writes this letter to
the church at Ephesus, there was real animosity between Jews and Gentiles.

When
the magnificent Jewish temple was built in Jerusalem, there was this wall that
separated the Jews from the Gentiles.It
was eventually finished in 64AD, a structure of cream stone and gold.You not only had the whole structure built
upon a platform, so it was elevated, and you not only had different courts,
working outwards, first a court for the priests, then one for the Jewish men,
then another one for the women, but you had this huge wall further below that
separated the Jews from the Gentiles.So
if you were a Gentile, you would look up at this great resplendent building,
and furthermore you were cut off it by this wall, which was essentially was a
very intimidating stone barrier.There
were notices displayed at various points, that read, not ‘Trespassers will be
prosecuted’, but ‘Trespassers will be executed’!In fact some of these notices in the common
language of the day, Greek and Latin have been unearthed, and have been
displayed at a museum in Istanbul.

1)Be reconciled to God.

This
literal, physical wall speaks volume about humanity.On the one side were the Jews, so near yet so
far from God with their distorted religion, looking down on the other side upon
their fellow human beings, the Gentiles, who also were’ far away’, see
v11-13.They were without Christ, they
were outside all that real Judaism offered (not this distorted version),
therefore they were without hope.The
Greek and Roman gods failed them, such idols could not satisfy the hunger of
their souls.So they had no hope to
sustain them.They were without God,
they had no fellowship with their Creator, because they did not know him.They were far away!The imposing wall outside the temple, in a
away, symbolised their position, their status.

Is
that you today?You know very little
about the one, true living God, with the gods of your life – whatever you look
to for hope – not delivering.It may be
the so-called church you’ve somehow looked to, have, like the Jews of Paul’s
day, become smug and superior, constructing barriers.Churches that start well, that even develop
into denominations can start pulling up the drawbridges as if they are the
special lot, the chosen lot, and look down upon everyone else and distort what
God has called them to be.Gateway, lets
always seek to have open doors!Above
all, have you met Jesus who offers the hand of friendship?Is that you today?

The
good news, is through the cross of Jesus, Christ crucified, you can be brought
near into something very special.Jesus
offers the hand of friendship.Verse 18 promises
you can have access through Jesus to the Father, by the one Spirit.Jesus is the gateway, it’s why we are called
‘Gateway’.

Why
is it through Jesus?Go back to
v13.It’s through the blood of Jesus –
which is reference to the historical event.It’s his sacrifice upon the cross, an event in history.But also v13 says ‘But now in Christ
Jesus...’That is reference to your
personal faith in Christ.It’s your
conversion.The moment you put your
trust in Christ, that he died for your sins, the benefits of the historical
event are applied to you – you are reconciled to God.It’s like at the cross God in Jesus offers
the hand of friendship to all, but you have to accept and receive his
outstretched hand.‘But now in Christ
Jesus you who were once were far away have been brought near through the blood
of Christ’ v13.Be reconciled to God.

2)Be reconciled to others

Broken
relationships is real for everyone, all of us have been affected by broken
relationships.It may be between parents
and children or between husband and wife or between brothers/sisters or between
good friends or between neighbours or colleagues.

It’s
amazing how in Ephesians we see this working out between these two very hostile
groups Jews and Gentiles (religious and pagan).See Acts 19.8-10.It is through
the cross that they are brought together, see v14 & 15, and both groups
have access to God through Jesus the Son, v18.In God’s kingdom, there is no room for any kind of superiority or
inferiority based on ethnic background or any other dividing line, e.g. the
Caste system in India.Before God,
because of his reconciling love demonstrated at the cross, everyone in Christ
stands on a level playing field before God.‘You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you
who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.There is neither Jew or Greek, slave nor
free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians
3.26-28).

Of
course there are actual differences between male and female, between Jew and
Gentile. Men are men, women are women,
Jews are Jews, and Gentiles are Gentiles, but the point is in the church, in
Jesus, the differences shouln’t cause division.

Jesus
died to create a community, built on love and forgiveness.Jesus didn’t die to form a committee, but a
community – church.The cross results
in, yes, the salvation of individuals, but also the founding of a new community
called the church.The church is made up
of ordinary people, indeed those on the margins of society are found at the
centre of the community called church.

Vinay
Samuel, an Indian Christian leader and author says, ‘One sign and wonder,
biblically speaking, that alone can prove the power of the gospel of
reconciliation...Hindus can produce as many miracles as any Christian miracle
worker.Islamic saints in India can
produce and duplicate every miracle that has been produced by Christians.But they cannot duplicate the miracle of
black and white together, of racial injustice being swept away by the power of
the gospel’.That is a miracle – which
no other religion can produce.

As
one Pastor tweeted, ‘A business has customers, consumers, critics,
complainers.A family has dads, mums,
sisters, brothers. Church is a family’.

3)What does it mean to be reconciled? How does it really work?

It’s
about bringing enemies into a place of genuine friendship.I don’t mean a kind of romantic or
sentimental ‘making up’ but a real look at the cause of the hostility, rather
than a papering over the cracks.

Sin
is the problem in the breakdown of relationships.The most serious case of a broken relationship,
as we’ve already considered, is between you and God.The Bible declares that we are enemies of
God.It’s not a neutral position, rather
your default position is hostility towards God.That must be overcome and reconciliation and forgiveness to take place.

To
be reconciled, with God, and with others, there must be an honest facing up to
facts.In other words you cannot have
true reconciliation with honestly considering the cause.The issues have to be confronted which can be
painful, with a cost involved. Good counselling
or mediation helps the two sides look at the causes and the issues.

It
starts with God. In 2 Corinthians 5, the
apostle Paul is emphatic in that whilst we are helpless in sorting out this
problem, God takes the initiative.‘All
this is from God’ v18, God was reconciling ‘the world to himself’ v19, and ‘God
made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might the
righteousness of God’ v21.Let’s be
careful, don’t think that Christ became a sinner, rather he was made to be sin.

So
reconciliation is something done primarily by God the offended party.He takes steps to forgive and set aside the
offence.For a broken friendship to be
restored – there must be forgiveness.The cross of Jesus, the death of Jesus, Jesus Christ crucified, reveals
the full measure of God’s love for us.All that Jesus endured at Calvary was for you.That is how much you matter to God, indeed
how much you and I have sinned against God.The offer for real forgiveness for real sins, is only possible because
Jesus bears the punishment.He mediates
between us and God.He is the mediator,
the go-between.Your relationship with
God is transformed through human repentance and divine forgiveness with Jesus
mediating. ‘God was reconciling the world
to himself in Christ’, (2 Corinthians 5.19).

The
cross of the crucified Christ deals with the problem.The life of Christ was not sufficient, it
needed the death of Christ.Romans 5.10,
‘We were reconciled to him through the death of his Son’.

It
starts with God, and continues in the church. As Gateway church we’re to be a community of
reconciliation.In the first place you and
I are not to share Christ from a position of superiority.As a community of reconciliation we urge
people to sort out their lives with God, but from a position of humility and
gentleness, pleading with people to look to Christ.

Furthermore
as Gateway we’re not only to proclaim this message of reconciliation but we are
to model it too.An authentic
reconciliation with God does affects the vertical dimension but also the
horizontal, that there should be genuine reconciliation with one another.We’re to model it in our relationships.

It’s
useful to examine ourselves, Gateway church, re. the differences between
us...men and women, young and old, different backgrounds and education...there
are differences in our preferences...personal desires re. worship songs (the
music is too loud or it’s not loud enough), dress code...but the big question is do these differences
– major and minor – cause division?Or is
there a sense of unity within the diversity.Do you welcome people who are very different form you...it might be
class or culture or is it only like-minded people you embrace?

At
the cross, Jesus not only makes us one with God, but one with another.To how much does Gateway reflect the
reconciliation?Are we as united as
possible, amidst the diversity, as devoted followers of Jesus?This is God’s desire, but are you and I
displaying it?

Conclusion

So
reconciliation tells us something is wrong, otherwise why did Christ die?But also reconciliations tells us that
forgiveness is available.Forgiveness is
so important if a relationship is to be restored and this only comes about when
the offended explain to the offender about the full hurt caused and the pain
that has been inflicted.

The
cross tells us that our relationship with God falls far short of what it is
intended to be.We are alienated from
God, and a sign of that is division between people. We are not born into the fullness of a
relationship with God, it has to be established.

‘and in this one body to
reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their
hostility’ v16.Jesus was slayed upon the cross.He was nailed, he was crucified.Above all who took the punishment of hell that we deserve from God upon
himself.He was slayed, Jesus, the Son
of God.But in doing so, by paying the
price, he slayed the hostility in both directions.Christ crucified slayed the hostility between
you and God, so you can be at peace with him.A settlement has been agreed, Christ is that mediator.But also, Christ crucified has slayed the
hostility between people, nations, tribes, communities, friends, colleagues,
families, within families, marriages.That hostility has been decisively dealt with.So in Christ crucified, we have a new
humanity, individuals reconciled with God, individuals reconciled with one
another.You have no excuse – but Christ
has slayed any hostility between you and God and between you and another.You just have to pick up the ‘peace terms’.

V17
surely is a reference to the risen Jesus.John 20.19 & 21, ‘Peace be with you’.The first words he spoke to the disciples
after his death were ‘peace’.In others
words , Jesus is saying, “I’ve settled it, you can experience the full blessing
of all that you ever need”.It’s a peace
to those far away and to those near.Together, different people from different backgrounds, temperaments,
even religions...together as God’s new community, the church, we approach God
our Farther by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ.

Question for Q & A – Ask
yourself, have you accepted the hand of friendship offered by Jesus, the
mediator, who is able to reconcile you to God?If you have, have you done all you can to reconcile yourself to others
where there is a broken relationship?

Prayer of commitment &
faith:

Lord
Jesus, I have done a lot of things wrong in my life.I am sorry for going my own way instead of
your way, and living without you.Thank
you for dying on the cross to forgive my sin, so that I might be reconciled to
you.I believe that by your death you
destroyed all hostility on my part towards God and towards other people.Please come and take first place in my life,
that I might have a real friendship with you living God, filling my life with
your reconciling love.Amen.

Monday, 11 March 2013

Focus
verse – ’and free those who all their lives were held in slavery

by their fear of death’, v15

Main
theme: Jesus sets you free from the shackles.

Introduction

You
may have seen the film, The Truman Show.It’s been shown many times on TV, so I think it’s ok to give part of the
story away.It’s about a guy who from
birth has his life filmed ‘live’ as a kind of live soap drama.But he doesn’t know this, because all the
cameras are hidden.At the same time
everyone else in his life are just actors, but he thinks it’s for real.It’s all filmed in a gigantic studio, but to
Truman he thinks this is life.But as he
grows older, he senses something is not right.He always wants to travel to the Fiji islands, but somehow obstacles are
put in his way, so he remains in this massive studio which has dimensions of
several miles in radius.He senses,
although he can never quite understand until the end, he wants to be free, but
free from what?In essence he is being
held captive against his will, but Truman doesn’t know it, until the end of the
film.

I
think the film is an insight into human nature, that you go through life,
sensing deep down that something is not right, that there must be more to life.What is ironic is that even in our Western
society, which is based on freedom, people long to be truly free.In previous generations, the emphasis of society
was on being a ‘good person’ e.g. in the Victorian age.Morality was a strong theme.Today, the emphasis is on being a ‘free
person’.We absorb through the media and
peer pressure so many messages and vibes in our lives that suggests we are not
truly free until we have purchased this or experienced that, or visited this
place, or seen the latest...whatever it is...only to find, that whatever the
experience is, it is never truly fulfilling or satisfying in the long-term.

Until
you recognise that unless God is at the centre of your worship, and therefore
whatever you are pinning your hopes on is ultimately idolatry, then you will
always feel enslaved and unhappy, and what makes it worse, is that for many
people they don’t know why they feel that way.The truth is that, to be free to do whatever you want, in the end makes
you a slave to your freedom.True
happiness is elusive.

1)Held Captive By The Cords Of Death

In
our Bible passage today, we read how you are held in slavery by your fear of
death (Hebrews 2.15).So for example, some
people feel they need to exploit their freedom, knowing that it will not last,
because one day they will die.As I
suggested earlier, people in previous generations sought to live a good life,
to be moral, as if religion could get them through death and into heaven.Whilst religion cannot bring people into
heaven, at least there was a general view that there was an afterlife and some
kind of accountability.Today, there is
an increasing view that this life is all there is.So people live as if this life is all there
is, hence freedom is exploited.The
motto is, let’s ‘take life easy; eat, drink and be merry’, for tomorrow we die.People live out their freedom as if there is
no tomorrow, and it can be a freedom that is very hedonistic (belief that
pleasure is the most important thing in life).It is the attitude of why is life worth living if in the end you
die?So I may as well just live my life
how I want, because in the end I die?

So
either way, whether it’s the religious life or the narcissistic life (excessive
interest in yourself), death is a very powerful influence.If you are trying to live a moral life to
please God, with a view of trying to get into heaven, it’s because death is
that determining factor.Of course it’s
a lie, you never be good enough for God.It’s the lie of religion.If you
are just living your life with no reference to morality, and to God, that’s the
lie of atheism.But again death is the
determining factor.

With
this week’s theme in mind, what you need is true freedom.Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live your life
free of the shackles?To be free of the
fear of death, however it drives you in this life, either towards morality or
immorality, towards religion or paganism?

So
the passage in Hebrews teaches us that, above all, you and I are held in
slavery by our fear of death.Most
people are scared to death of the thought of death.Its finality hangs over you and I.

So
there is a sense of a stranglehold upon lives because of sin, the domination of
sin, of the finality of death and the devil.To compound this reality many people experience all sorts of shackles.It’s manifested in many ways.It might be on a global scale.We only have to consider Syria today, where
many thousands have had their freedom to live life in peace and harmony taken
away, because of their terrible civil war.It might be on a national scale.We think of the financial crisis, which is causing major issues in our
society, and many people are at the mercy of the austerity measures, and feel
captive and hemmed in.We have high
levels of addictions, a type of captivity, e.g. drugs, gambling, and
pornography which impacts our society in very negative ways.

Then
on a personal level, we have broken marriages and family life, and people feel
captive to the guilt and the trauma that broken relationships bring.Then we have health issues, disease and
sickness, which people feel captive to.We can go on... and give further examples whilst acknowledging some of
these issues are very complex.It might
be that you feel under great pressure to prove yourself to others, it might
even be on this mothering Sunday, that you’ve always felt under relentless
pressure to be that perfect mother or son or daughter, in order to gain
approval.So in that sense you are
captive.

2)Set Free By Christ Crucified

But
here’s some good news...and can you tell me of a better, more credible
alternative?It is this, God sends His
Son, Jesus Christ from heaven into our world, on a rescue mission.Jesus becomes fully human (v14), ‘so that he
might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free
those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death’.Furthermore, Jesus even helps you with all
the temptations you face every day that can send you spiralling back into
slavery of sin, and its demonic influences.Don’t forget that.You may be a
new Christian, and in the past you’ve struggled with addictions or debt or
anger or sexual immorality or violence...whatever, remember God can enable you
by his Holy Spirit to give you the power to resist these new temptations when
they rise up again, with the support of other Christians.God sent Jesus Christ to set you free and destroys
the stranglehold of the devil.How does
it work?The rest of the Bible explains
further about this freedom.Let the
Bible interpret the Bible.

Mark
10.45, ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to
give his life as a ransom for many’.The
word ransom brings to mind this sense of being held captive and released only
when a ransom is paid.Jesus’ death was
a ransom, to decisively end your captivity and set you free, free from being
held in the hold of sin and free from the fear of death.This idea of ransom is an analogy, there is
no suggestion that Jesus had to pay a ransom to the devil, but simply he has
delivered us from the grip of sin, death and the devil himself.

Another
similar image to ransom that underpins this image of freedom is
redemption.What does ‘Redemption’
actually mean?You have to go back to
the first century, the time of Jesus and the apostles.If you were slave, and the Roman Empire was
built upon slavery, although perhaps a little different from what you might envisage
slavery to be, nevertheless you were a commodity.Perhaps you very well-treated with privileges
and responsibilities, but nevertheless you were regarded by your owner as
property.To be granted freedom, and the
dignity of personhood, you had to buy your freedom, or perhaps someone else
bought it for you.It was unusual, but
it happened, a slave could be redeemed but at a cost, at a price.Indeed, the better the slave, the higher the
cost.

To
be a Christian is to be redeemed from the slavery of sin, death and the devil,
and all the examples we’ve considered about how this is manifested in daily
life.But this redemption comes at a
tremendous cost.Thankfully,
wonderfully, you don’t have to pay a penny.The Son of God foots the bill.Jesus dies that you might be redeemed.‘For it is not with perishable things suchas silver and gold that you were redeemed
from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with
the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect’, 1 Peter
1.18-19.

Again
the Bible is silent about whom the price is paid, that is where the analogy
ends.It’s an image.What we know, what the Bible reveals, is that
you are held in slavery, especially the fear of death, under the hold of the devil,
not excusing your own sinful ways, and Jesus gave his life as a ransom for you,
that Jesus pays the price to redeem you.

What
the Bible promises, indeed what the God of the Bible promises, is that you can
be set free.You can experience
freedom.We believe Jesus died to set
you free, to set you free from the shackles.

Jesus
went to the cross.Even though he had
committed no sin, never mind no crime, Jesus was a prisoner.He had the statement of his crime, the
written charge, nailed to the cross above him - ’Jesus of Nazareth, the King of
the Jews’...’The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write
‘The King of the Jews’, but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews”.Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have
written” (John 19.19-22).Indeed what
took place on the cross, is what Martin Luther called the ‘great
transaction’.Another way to look at it
is that God as King has pardoned you and set you free of the shackles of sin,
and now he invites you into the palace.You are delivered from the chains of sin and delivered into fellowship
with God.

John
8.31-32 Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my
disciples.Then you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free” ‘.

John
8.36 ‘So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed’.

Romans
8.1-2 ‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free
from the law of sin and death’.

Galatians
5.1 ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free’.

Conclusion

The
gospel, the good news of Jesus throws open the prison door of your life and you
are invited to walk free.The light of
day shines in, and you can go free.It
begins now, at least freedom in your heart, and one day complete freedom in the
life to come.Jesus has come, lived,
died, rose and returned to heaven, to
prepare this place for you.It what
Jesus promised, as recorded in John 14.He will come back – not so much to take us there, it doesn’t say that –
it says to take us to himself.‘Take
you’ has a sense in the original Greek of welcoming someone, so it speaks of
welcome, Jesus embracing all his followers.Jesus will be at the centre of this new world, a place of true freedom,
freedom from death, mourning, crying and pain - see Revelation 21.4

Jesus Christ will come back for us to
liberate us completely and totally from the sin, death and the evil one.Isn’t that wonderful, Jesus is your escort
and your destination.

No wonder the black African slaves in
America in centuries gone by, would shuffle along in their shackled chains singing
‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, coming for to carry me home’ – adopted now as a Rugby
anthem.But we don't often hear the rest
of the words to that spiritual song. They go like this:

'I looked over Jordan, and what did I see?
A band of angels coming after me,
Coming for to carry me home.
If you get there before I do,
Tell all my friends I'm coming, too.
Coming for to carry me home.
I'm sometimes up and sometimes down,
But still my soul feels heavenly bound,
Coming for to carry me home.
The brightest day that I can say,
When Jesus washed my sins away,
Coming for to carry me home.'

It's a song of hope in the midst of trouble;
and a song of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save
sinners - to rescue you and me by dying in our place on the cross and rising
from the dead, and of the sure and certain hope of the heavenly life for those who
believe and trust in him.Jesus died as
a prisoner instead of you...and as our focus verse says to ‘free those who all
their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death’, v15

You
are held captive by the cords of death,

but
you can be set free by the crucified Christ

Question for Q & A –
Ask yourself, do you believe and experience in your own heart and life that
freedom which Christ brings?

Prayer of commitment &
faith:

Lord
Jesus, I have done a lot of things wrong in my life.I am sorry for going my own way instead of
your way, and living without you.Thank
you for dying on the cross to forgive my sin, so that I might be truly free.I believe that you destroyed the evil one who
holds the power over death.Please come
and take first place in my life, that I might truly live and be free of the
shackles of sin and death, filling my life with your redeeming love.Amen.

Friday, 8 March 2013

I popped into Barnsley Football Club ticket
office today & asked for 2 tickets for Manchester City v Barnsley FC in the
Quarter Finals of the FA Cup.Of course
I knew full well that the Man City stadium is sold out, including Barnsley’s
allocation of 6000 tickets.However, on the
way down, I prayed, “Lord, if it pleases you, I’d love to have 2 seats together”
(so I can take our 12 yr old).

I walked into an empty ticket office and
the woman said, “Two tickets have just been returned”, so I bought them, amazed
at answered prayer.God always answers
prayer, but sometimes the answer is no, or not yet!It’s good to pray about all manner of things,
including football tickets, and trusting God with the outcome!

I began to think a bit more...why does such a game, which, as my
mother-in-law says, is just a bag of wind being kicked around cause such
interest?It does galvanise a town like
Barnsley to be playing in the Q/F of the FA Cup, against such high quality
opponents (last season’s Premier League champions).Football draws a community together.But also there is something about the ‘underdog’
trying to topple the ‘favourites’, indeed the odds are stacked against BFC
progressing to the semi-finals of the world’s old football competition.But we all love to see the ‘weak shame the strong’.

This reminds me of the good news of Jesus,
who from a position of total weakness ‘disarmed the powers and
authorities...triumphing over them by the cross” (Bible). At Gateway Church we’re half-way through a
preaching series looking at why Jesus died?The series is called ‘The world’s greatest hero – Christ crucified’.

Whatever happens at the big game tomorrow, we’ll
enjoy the experience, even though it’s a dent in some birthday money I was
given in order to buy the tickets!I’m
not used to buying a ticket, because I usually get paid to watch Barnsley
FC!Well not quite, I’m actually a match
day steward at BFC’s home games at Oakwell, the home of where Gateway church
was launched on Easter Sunday 2011.Easter Sunday reminds me that surprises do take place – when the church celebrates and declares that the ‘underdog’
did overcome the odds and emerged victorious.